The Impact of Malaria on Education : Evidence from Ethiopia

Estimates of the benefits of malaria reduction derived from countries that eradicated the disease are not necessarily applicable to sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria incidence and mortality is high and all eradication attempts were unsuccessful. This paper estimates the effects of malaria on schooling using geographic and survey data from Ethiopia. I show that self-reported malaria is highly correlated with village topographical characteristics. Using these environmental conditions as predictors of the disease, I estimate that moving from a village with no malaria to one with average malaria reduces schooling in children and adults by 0.30-0.60 years